By Kabir Ibrahim
Nigeria has vast resources ranging from oil, a myriad of mineral resources, large arable land, a large population of able-bodied youths and a vast internet penetration to name a few endowments.
For Nigeria to be food sufficient and easily attain the much desired food security that will transform it into a net exporter of certain agricultural commodities in such a scale that it becomes a global giant, the country must leverage on all the above listed endowments, deploying result oriented techniques with efficient and veritable food production methodologies. The country must also promote efficient processing, distribution, marketing and consumption strategies.
The motivation of our smallholder farmers (SHFs) or small scale producers (SSP) to work in unison, assiduously and properly to be able to scale up their productivity, will make them quite capable of transforming Nigeria’s food system into a sustainably ebullient model which will be efficient and lead to the attainment of sustainable food security.
To effectively bring about this transformation it is necessary to sensitize the farmers sufficiently to make them to wholly embrace Agribusiness and thereby make it serve as the motivator or elixir for higher productivity.
The current level of food inflation in the country should actually be viewed as the necessary challenge to attract investments from the private sector and government in order to optimize or enhance food production through the availability and affordability of inputs such as fertilizer, agrochemicals as well as moderate mechanization, innovation, climate smart agricultural production techniques, the deployment of good Science and Technology as well as agricultural extension services etc.
The co-creation of “Nobel farm to market” technique comprising of bringing small producers and investors in one Business- Business Deal Room to bond in “TRUST and RELIABILITY” will motivate higher productivity and marketability which combination is capable of creating stupendous wealth for everyone and therefore make all participants to become efficient and sustainable.
The fine details of this concept will entail deploying a number of mutually exclusive collaborations and partnerships between and among all stakeholders in Agriculture, Agribusiness, financial institutions, researchers, consultants, agrodealers, fertilizer producers, seed entrepreneurs etc.
The incentive for the SSPs or SHFs to scale up will be sprouting from clearly collaborative value- chain stakeholders and this will definitely result in economic growth and general prosperity.
This is simply the model adopted by all nations that are food secure and it behoves on us to model them to be able to make Nigeria food and nutrition secure in a few years in order for it to continue to efficiently exist as a united country and probably become a Global Giant!
Arc. Ibrahim, FNIA the National President of All FarmersAssociationofNigeria (AFAN), President, Nigeria Agribusiness Group (NABG), Chairman, BOT, National Agricultural Foundation of Nigeria (NAFN) writes from Kigali, Rwanda where he is attending the 2024 African Food System (AFS) Forum.